RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Ordeal
tius, pp. 95-96, London, 1900). In Ceram food on which a sword has been laid serves the same purpose; and in Tenimber the suspect sips of his own blood in which a sword has been dipped (J. G. F. Riedel, De Sluik en Kroes-harige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua,. pp. 129, 284, The Hague, 1886). A Samoyed drinks water to which gunpowder and earth have been added and in which a sword has been dipped, and invokes sickness, powder, and sword on himself if he be guilty (J. Georgi, Les Nations Samoyeds, p. 48, St. Petersburg, 1776); and Malays have a custom exactly parallel (W. W Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 528, London, 1900). The Balinese use a bowl of pure water (A. Featherman, Social Hist, of the Races of Mankind, ii. 408, London, 1885). It is not unlikely that the element of the ordeal is to be traced in the initiation into the mysteries of savage tribes, the purport being to discover the acceptability of the candidates to the spirits which are patrons of the mysteries (cf. A. Lang, Myth, Ritual, and Religion, i. 281 sqq., London, 1887; R. H. Codrington, Melanesian Studies, chap, v., ib. 1891; J. G. Frazer, Golden Bough, iii. 204 sqq., 422 sqq., ib. 1900; and the work of Decle cited above, p. 78).
The native conservatism of man would justify the expectation that a custom so universal among primitive peoples would perpetuate itself among those more advanced and become parts of recognized judicial procedure. This is found to be the case. In Babylonia, in the code of 6. In Non- Hammurabi (see Hammurabi and His Christian Code) §§2 and 132 provide for the Codes. ordeal of water by casting into " the holy river " a suspected sorcerer or adulteress, the floating of the suspect proving innocence (contrary to the usual judgment, see below). In Zoroastrianism the Vendidad (iv. 54-55) notes an ordeal of " brimstone, golden, truthknowing water," but the context throws no light upon the method of employing it. In iv. 44^46 (128) boiling water appears as the means. The Shayast la-Shayast (xv. 14-17) notes the unique ordeal of molten metal which, poured over the body or breast of the believer, is harmless or even pleasant; but on sinners, eats the very flesh; the same source (xiii. 17) refers to the six hot ordeals of the Husparam (Sakadun) Nask. The Dadistani Dinik (xxxvii. 74) refers to an ordeal of poison which apparently the litigant seeks to evade. The Dinkart (iv. 33) refers to fire and melted iron. In India the Institutes of Vishnu (chaps, ix.-xiv.; Eng. transl., SBE, Am. ed., viii. 1, pp. 52-61) regulate the use of ordeals and name those which involve holding, while taking the oath, a blade of grass, or of sesamum, or of silver or gold, or of the lump of earth from the furrow; the sacred libation of three handfuls of water in which an image has been washed, the balance, fire, water, and poisons, are also named and treated. In an Indian fire ordeal in the code of Yajnavalkya, the subject bathed, rubbed his hands with rice bran, with a series of seven vegetable objects, and with barley moistened with curds, and then invoked the fire: " Thou, O fire, pervadest all things; O cause of purity, who givest evidence of virtue and of sin, declare the
truth in my hand." He then carried the hot iron the stipulated distance.
In the Old Testament is given a typical case of the ordeal, the entire process being expressly under the protection and direction of religious authorities (Num. v. 11-31). An offering of distinctive character, one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal without oil and frankincense, is brought to the priest and held during the trial by the woman suspected of wrongdoing. Into water
7. In the that has been consecrated by the priest Old he puts dust from the floor of the
Testament, tabernacle, and this mixture is held by the woman while the priest utters over her a promise of immunity from harm in case of her innocence, which, however, becomes a terrible imprecation if she be guilty, to which the woman gives assent. The promise or imprecation is written in a book and then blotted out with part of the water of ordeal. Next the offering is taken from the woman's hand, waved toward the altar and a handful of it burned; then the woman drinks the rest of the potion and goes free if she is innocent; or, in case of guilt, she is supposed to suffer death in a horrible form through the disruptive action of the otherwise harmless potion. There is no necessity in this case to fall back upon the explanation offered of infection by plague through water or dust in cases in which death followed the ordeal; a much closer and more effective explanation lies ready to hand in the operation of auto-suggestion — a principle abundantly in evidence among both primitive and advanced peoples. The essential of the ordeal is employed in the use of the lot, as when Achan's offense was discovered (Josh. vii. 13-26) and in the case of Jonathan's breach of taboo (I Sam. xiv. 36- 45). The combat of David with Goliath is an instance of the wager of battle. It is noteworthy that David speaks again and again of the Philistine defying " the armies of the living God," and in his answer to the taunt of Goliath says: " I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God whom thou hast defied " (I Sam. xvii).
It is held by rabbinic interpreters of Ex. xxxii. 30 that the drinking of the water in which the gold dust from the calf of Sinai was mixed was an ordeal, the gold making red the beards of those who had worshiped the idol. As exegesis this is, of course, unscientific; but it is interesting as marking the continuance of the superstition among the Jews. In effect, but not in purpose, the episode of the three children in the fiery furnace (Dan. iii.) was an ordeal.
The peoples who were converted to Christianity brought with them this institution, and here, too, for a time the sanction of religion was given to its employment. Moreover, the legal status of the process is exhibited in the phrase used in documents of the form judicium ferri, " judgment by iron," in the fact that the weight of 8. In Chris- the iron was in some parts fixed by tianity. law and the method of use was determined in the same manner, while the hand, after bandaging, was sealed by the judge's signet. The process as a judicial means is embodied in a number of European codes from the
Ordeal
Order of Salvation